


Hidden Secrets

by MoonlitSea



Series: Hidden Secrets [1]
Category: The Transformers (Cartoon Generation One)
Genre: Gen, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-10-29 18:39:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 14,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17813336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonlitSea/pseuds/MoonlitSea
Summary: re-enforcements from Cybertron, but two of these re-enforcements have ties to the Decepticons. Will Autobots be able to see past this or will they be taken down from the inside.





	1. Chapter 1

There was a hub of excitement in the rec room, there were rumours going round that femmes were coming to help out with the Decepticons. When the rumours first started two weeks ago there were mixed reactions, some thought it was foolish it bring femmes to Earth, others claimed that the Decepticons would mock them saying that they were so weak that they had to have femmes fight for them while others were just excited to finally be able to _see_ a femme again.  
Optimus Prime walked in with Prowl on one side and Jazz on the other, “Autobots,” Prime called out gaining the attention of the entire room. “You have no doubt heard of the rumour that there may be femmes arriving.”

“Whoo hoo!” someone shouted out.

“He said _maybe_ , Sideswipe.” Prowl reinforced.

“Then explain why Jazz is grinning like a mad mech.” Another voice called out.

Both Optimus and Prowl looked at the Porsche to see he was indeed grinning from audio to audio; he shrugged in response to them. Sunstreaker, who had been barely listening since he thought femmes were only good for interfacing and would only get in the way, looked over immediately when he recognised one of the femme’s names. _Lightning?_ He thought to himself slightly worried. Sideswipe looked over at his brother as soon as he heard the last femme’s name, and saw the look of worry in his optics before it disappeared seconds later. Sunstreaker and Lightning had a history that only he knew about. _Well this is certainly going to be interesting._ He thought.

\----  
It had been three weeks since Prime had announced that the femmes Storm, Starlight and Lightning were to come to Earth to help fight the Decepticons, they had still to arrive and everyone was starting to get frustrated. Luckily for Optimus the Decepticons kept them busy so there wasn’t much trouble within the Ark, though he knew he couldn’t count on Megatron keeping it up. Suddenly an alarm rang throughout the base _speaking of Megatron…_ the semi thought comically.

The battle raged on as Autobot fought Decepticon, Megatron growled as he saw he would lose once again. The Autobots had somehow gotten stronger and were getting stronger with each successive battle they had, whatever it was that was fuelling them Megatron wanted it. Little did he know he was about to get his wish.  
Out of nowhere three learjets appeared, one was white with ocean blue engines, tail section and wings, another was light yellow with grey nosecone, cockpit and tail fin and the third a blue-grey. Megatron smirked thinking the odds of winning the battle were now in his favour since there were no Autobot flyers, that smirk soon turned into a snarl when he saw that the planes had open fire on _his_ Decepticons.  
“STARSCREAM!” he yelled out to his air commander “what the slag are they doing you idiot! There suppose to be firing on the Autobots not on us! Fix this at once or there won’t be enough pieces of you left to even make a _MINICON!_ ”

“B-but Lord M-Megatron…” Starscream stuttered as he came up beside the Decepticon leader “they’re not Decepticons.”

“Then what are you fragging standing round here for! Go shoot them down!”

Starscream transformed calling over to Thundercracker and Skywarp and they headed towards the learjets. Starscream wasn’t sure if they weren’t Decepticons since everyone knew that all Autobots were grounders, Skyfire being the only exception. Even if they were Decepticons they were poorly misguided, he inwardly smirked he would have fun watching Megatron tear in them instead of him for a change. That enjoyment was short-lived however when he saw the insignia on the light yellow’s tail fin.

“They’re Autobots?” Skywarp said in surprise.

“That’s impossible.” Thundercracker replied, “No Autobot can fly.”

“Right, it’s gotta be some kind of Autobot trick.” Skywarp said.

“Really.” Starscream said sarcastically.

“Yeah. Watch me shoot right through them.” The blue seeker fired at the white and Ocean blue jet expecting it to disappear or pass straight through it like a hologram. He was surprised when the learjet not only dodged the shot but turned and returned fire.

“SHOOT BACK YOU IDIOTS!” Starscream yelled at his trinemates.

Megatron watched as he punched and kicked another Autobot to the ground. _So…the Autobots now have air support_ he thought darkly as he shot the fallen mech. He heard his name called out and looked over a smirk appearing on his face. “I congratulate you, Prime.” He said “but I will _still_ win this war! Decepticons retreat!” After seeing off the Decepticons Optimus looked up at the learjets he saw them fly in the direction towards the Ark and smiled behind his faceplate, they had finally arrived.


	2. Chapter 2

Ratchet was busy fixing the aftermath of their latest battle cursing and muttering as he went. The medbay was full of talk about the learjets that had come to their aid and left straight after. When the medbay door opened he didn’t bother looking to see who it was nor did he realise the sudden hush that had descended upon the room, “If you’re not injured then get out, I have enough to deal with.” He snapped.

“We were suppose to report here for a check-up.” A feminine voice began.

“Though considering that reception perhaps we should return to Cybertron. Let’s go.” Another female voice said, though this one had a more commanding tone to it than the other.

It was only _after_ the medbay doors closed that Ratchet registered that the voices were _female_. He looked over at the door in slight surprise before putting it down to working himself too hard. He was about to continue work on Bluestreak when he saw the entire medbay look at him. “What are you all staring at!” he snapped.

“You’re an idiot.” A voice said before the medbay resumed it’s after battle conversation.

\----  
The next encounter with the three new arrivals made sure the entire base knew they were there, and anyone who was in shouting distance of Red Alert. He had seen the three jets on his security cameras heading towards a ‘high security area’ and slammed his hand down hard on the alarm button. “DECEPTICON INFILTRATION!” he screamed.

Every Autobot ran to the command centre, Prowl went to the security room to confer with Red Alert and see where the ‘intruders’ were now. Only for the white and red mech to tell, and show, him that they were now with every other Autobot in the command centre. When the Datsun commed his leader and explained what Red Alert was seeing the tactician was quite surprised when he heard the semi chuckle.

There were moans and complaints in the command centre about the paranoid Lamborghini, and the fact that there was no Decepticon intruder for them to take their frustration out on.  
“Autobots.” Prime called out gaining everyone’s attention “I believe there has been a misunderstanding.”

“More like Red Alert being the aft that he is.” A low voice said with mutters of agreement.

The Autobot leader ignored the comment; “I believe Red Alert has confused our new arrivals for Decepticons.”

“We know Red is dense,” a voice said “but how the slag can he mistake one of us for a con?”

“Maybe because unlike the rest of you, we can actually _fly_.” An annoyed feminine voice answered in a commanding tone.

Everyone turned to look at the voice and were surprised to see three femme jets. They were about the average height of any mech. Wings came out from behind each shoulder in a ‘V’ shape. The learjet’s tail rudders also came out from behind their shoulders. At their chests were three windows, what had been the learjet’s cockpit, and attached to each ankle was a jet engine. One femme was white with ocean blue engines, tail section, wings and from the elbow down, she had yellow optics. Another was blue-grey with a white tail section, hands and feet, she also had yellow optics. The third femme was a light yellow with a grey torso and tail section, her arms like the first femme were grey from the elbow down. Her optics were what stood her apart from her trine, they were pink. A rarity among Cybertronians.  
Optimus smiled behind his faceplate, “Autobots, I would like to introduce Storm…” the white and ocean blue femme gave a nod “Starlight…” the light yellow femme gave a nod “and Lightning.” The blue-grey femme gave a nod.

“They’re flyers!” someone said in amazement.

“No we’re trucks, of course we’re flyers you aft.” Starlight said sarcastically making Lightning chuckle.

“But all the flyers either joined the Decepticons or were killed.” Someone commented.

“After what the Decepticons did back on Cybertron we decided not to…” Starlight began only to be interrupted by Storm.

“Join them.” She comm-ed her teammate **_Do_** _not **tell them, or we will face what we did back home. Even more so since they’re actually on** this **planet.**_

Everyone began to walk out of the command centre talking amongst themselves about how the femmes they were waiting for turned out to be flyers and wondering how they had escaped every other flyers fate. Storm walked over to talk with Prime after quietly telling the other two femmes something, to which they gave a nod and started to head out along with everyone else. It was then that Lightning heard her name being called and turned to the voice. She narrowed her optics as she saw the yellow mech with the red one standing beside him. “I’ve got nothing to say to you, Sunstreaker.” Her hands became fists as she saw him smirk at her, oh how she’d love wipe that smirk of his face…permanently.

“Nice to see you again, Lightning, it’s been a while.” Sideswipe said.

“Not long enough I’d say, Sideswipe.” She replied, “We keep out of each other’s way and everything will be fine.” She turned to go when she heard Sunstreaker say, “What are you going to do if we _want_ to get in your way?” she looked over a glared at him. The blue-grey plane was about to reply when she heard Starlight call her name.

“Hey Light, we need to go.” The light yellow learjet had seen the entire exchange between her teammate and the Lamborghini’s. It made her curious as to why the normally soft-sparked femme would act like that; she saw the femme walk over to her and asked as they left the room. “Someone you know?”

“Once, a _very_ long time ago.” Lightning replied still a little annoyed.

“Hmmm…you know Storm will…” Starlight began.

“Storm needs to know _nothing_ about this. They were friends, once, but I no longer see them as that. They can go and get themselves killed for all I care.” Increasing her pace and leaving her teammate stunned and dumbfounded at her words.


	3. Chapter 3

Seven days, seven slagging days and already the mechs of the Ark couldn’t keep their optics and hands to themselves. It annoyed her, first they were all _“how did you survive?”_ and then joked with the fact that they could be Decepticon infiltrators. Something the white and ocean blue femme was all too familiar hearing then they couldn’t keep their fragging hands to themselves, but what annoyed Storm even more was that Starlight was loving the attention, due to her optic colour, and virtually _encouraging_ it. No matter how many times she told the accursed femme to stop she kept doing it. _Then again, since when has she ever listened to me…except during battle_ she mused. Though the next mech that ‘accidentally’ stroked a hand across her wing was being sent to the medbay.

\----  
Prowl sat in his office reading over reports when his door opened and a voice half moaned half complained, “Prowl, this has to stop.” Curious as to what the voice meant he looked up to see an upset Sideswipe with ribbons tied into bows around his helm horns and black dots all over his red paint, on his chest read ‘I’m a pretty ladybug.’ Prowl had to use all his self-control not to laugh in the Lamborghini’s face.

“Sunny’s worse.” Sideswipe stated as he saw the tactician look at his ‘decorations’. “This is the third time this week that something like this has happened and it has to stop!” Prowl didn’t know what impressed him more, the fact that Sunstreaker hadn’t already killed whoever was responsible or the fact that whoever it was had found enough of the human ribbon material to wrap around the red warrior’s horns. Sideswipe folded his arms across his chest in annoyance and looked away from the Datsun. “If I wasn’t so annoyed I’d be impressed.” He muttered.

“Do you know who is behind these…doings?” Prowl asked calmly.

“Those fragging femmes!” Sideswipe fumed smacking his hands down on the desk and looming over the tactician.

“Do you have any proof it was them?” the tactician asked not intimidated by the red Lamborghini.

“No, that’s what so slagging annoying!” Sideswipe said standing back to his full height and re-crossing his arms over his chest.

“Then there is nothing I can do about it.” Prowl stated calmly returning to his datapad.

Sideswipe’s hands fell by his sides and his mouth fell open. “What?!” he asked in shocked amazement.

“Sideswipe, unless you can bring me proof that these…incidents are the femmes doing. There is nothing I can do about it.” The Datsun explained managing to keep a straight face although he was smirking on the inside.

The Lamborghini narrowed his optics at the mech before him, his hands curling into fists. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Prowl looked at him once more before saying “Bring me proof that they are involved and I will act accordingly. Until then there is nothing I can do, good day Sideswipe.” The doorwinged mech once again returned to his datapad. He heard Sideswipe storm out and took a glance up before allowing a small smirk and chuckle to escape before returning to work.

\----  
Thundercracker sat in the communal area of their trine quarters thinking. Something about the white and Ocean blue Autobot seemed familiar to him, he wasn’t sure why or even how but _something_ about them felt familiar. It was as if he’d know them long ago. He’d tried to pass it off as some Autobot he’d fought in the past, but a little nagging voice in the back of his mind told him it was more _personal_ than that.  
“What are you thinking about, TC?” a voice asked bringing the blue seeker out of his thoughts. He looked over seeing the curious optics of the black seeker. “Nothing, ‘Warp.” He replied getting up and heading out.

“They reminded me of your sister.” Skywarp suddenly said making his trinemate look back at him in slight confusion. “That Autobot flyer you shot at.” The blue seeker stopped turning sideways on to his trinemate, Could that be it? The reason why Thundercracker thought he knew the flyer, the reason why his mind told him it was more _personal_ than he thought it was.  
“What happened to her anyway?” Skywarp asked curiously.

“Probably the same thing that happened to Solarflare, ‘Warp.” Thundercracker replied and continued out the door.

The curiosity Skywarp held was replaced by sadness as he thought of his sister, they were almost alike in every way. Although they were twins they were not split spark twins, they had no bond or ways to communicate with each other aside from speaking. Though they always knew when the other was nearby, but since she and Thundercracker’s sister Lazer both refused to join the Decepticons -even at their brother’s insistence- they shared the same fate as the rest of the flyers who either wanted no part in the war or tried to join with the Autobots…death.

\----  
Lightning walked along the corridor of the Ark, wanting to know the base over just as she had every other Autobot base she’d been in. She sighed as she remembered their time on Cybertron, she didn’t see why the other bots there gave Storm and Starlight so much trouble about their past. It was the main reason they had changed their alt modes to match hers and changed their names, so they could distance themselves as far away it as they could. _I should stop worrying about them, they can handle themselves. Besides_ she thought _I have my own problem, one that even_ they _don’t know about._ Before the femme even knew what was happening she was pushed against a wall two yellow hands slamming either side of her head onto the wall behind her. After regaining her senses she glared at the mech in front of her. “What the slag do you want?” she asked angrily.

“I’ve had enough of your _games_ , Lightning.” He said dangerously.

The blue-grey jet chuckled; she knew he meant all the incidents that Starlight had been playing on the two Lamborghini’s. She hadn’t asked her to do them but she wasn’t exactly going to tell her to stop either.  
“You have no proof it’s me or anyone else on the Ark, do you, _Sunstreaker_.”

Sunstreaker’s hands began to curl into fists either side of the femme’s head, since when had Lightning become so…hostile. This was not the kind and sweet femme he’d know all those years ago, and he was annoyed to find that it slightly turned him on.  
“I would stop if I were you, or you will not like the consequences.” He growled out.

“Even if it was me, which it isn’t…” she began her voice harsh and cold “why should I stop something that you’ve had coming for over an millennia?” she felt Sunstreaker’s hand immediately grab and tighten around her throat, she instantly grabbed his wrist and arm with both her hands trying to release his hold.

“Then you will find out who it is and stop them.” Sunstreaker snarled.

“W…why should…I-I?” Lightning managed to say and gave a small squeak when she felt his grip tighten as his optics narrowed in raged anger.

“SUNSTREAKER!” a voice shouted out making the mech look over and release the femme before walking off.

Lightning slid to the floor ignoring the pain the friction caused to her wings she had never, in all the time she had known him, thought Sunstreaker capable of what he’d just done and especially to _her_ , of all Cybertronians. She held her neck panting slightly as the fear and shock subsided.  
“Are you okay?” a voice asked placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “F-fine I…” she looked up at the mech and gasped in shock. “Dad?”


	4. Chapter 4

“Dad?” the white and red jet looked at the femme confused, why did she just call him dad? Seeing his confusion she continued, “It’s me, Lightning. Don’t you remember?” worry laced the femme’s voice as well as a slight bit of fear.

Skyfire stared at the blue-grey plane, he did have a sparkling called Lightning and they _were_ of her colour but he had held no hope of seeing her again. After he’d been recovered from the ice he had asked Prowl and Smokescreen, who’s creators were good friends of his and were looking after her while he was away, if they knew of his youngling’s whereabouts only to be sadly told that she was either a Decepticon or dead. So to actually have someone in front of him claiming that they were _his_ little Lightning threw him through a loop.

“You’ve forgotten me, haven’t you?” she said a lone tear making its way down her face, her wings quivering. “Smokescreen told me that you wouldn’t, he _promised_ me you wouldn’t. He lied!” she stood and ran off.

The white and red jet slowly stood as he watched the femme run off from him. He was far too shocked to run after her as realisation slowly dawned on him that she _was_ his little Lightning who he had left in the care of the two Datsun brothers.

\-----  
“I have called you here be…” Optimus began only to get interrupted.

“We know why we’re here, Prime.” The white and Ocean blue femme said annoyed.

“You want to talk to us about our brothers and the fact they are here, on Earth.” The light yellow femme continued.

“That is correct. I believe the two of you had some trouble back on Cybertron.” Optimus said.

“Well… I wouldn’t exactly call it trouble, Prime. It always got taken care of.” Starlight said with a slight smirk looking over at Storm.

If Storm could have rolled her optics she would have, instead she gave the femme an annoyed look.  
“And _that’s_ the reason why others distrusted us, even when we changed our appearance. You’re too much like him.”

It was Starlight’s turn to glare at the other femme. “I _used_ to be like him, I’ve changed. You know that better than anyone.”

“Even with your changed appearances,” Optimus interrupted “there are still parts of you that will never change.” He looked at Starlight but before he could say anything she said “my optics.” He gave a nod. “There have only ever been three Cybertronian’s with your optic colour, with the other two deceased the only one left is one of the sparkling born to Psiren and Firestorm.”

Storm lay her hand on her teammates shoulder as she saw her sadly look down at the floor and looked at the Autobot leader on the verge of anger. “Are you saying we have to _prove_ ourselves?”

Optimus shook his head, “I know the two of you are dedicated to our cause as much any Autobot here. My concern lies with what and how everyone will react when the truth comes out, maybe not by you but it will be only a matter of time before _they_ figure out who you really are.”

\-------  
Smokescreen walked into his brother’s office, he had just returned from a mission with Ironhide and Bumblebee and thus missed the ‘introduction’ of the three femme planes. “Thanks for the warning.” He said sarcastically as he sat across from the other Datsun. Prowl glanced up at the older Datsun before continuing to read his datapad. “You know there’s going to be trouble now they’re in the same base.” He continued.

“There has already been trouble, Smokescreen.” Prowl replied calmly still reading his pad.

“Care to tell me what?”

Finally Prowl placed his pad to one side and looked at his brother, “someone has played constant pranks on the twins since they arrived, causing even greater tension than there would normally be regarding Sunstreaker.”

Smokescreen looked at his younger brother carefully, he saw the slight twitch in the white and black’s doorwing.  
“You’re hiding something from me,” he stated plainly “what is it?”

“I am not hiding anything.” The tactician went to retrieve another pad from the pile but stopped when he felt a hand on his wrist, he looked back at his brother and knew the look he was being given. It was a look he hadn’t seen since they were younglings.

“Prowl.” The blue and red mech said sternly. “We’re talking about Lightning here. A femme who virtually became our sister when Skyfire was lost. I will not allow you to withhold information that would threaten her life, and you _know_ what I mean by that.”

Prowl sighed and looked down at his desk for a moment before he said, “Sunstreaker almost killed her.”

“What!” Smokescreen nearly screeched.

The white and black Datsun nodded, “I do not know completely what occurred, only that Skyfire found him trying to strangle her.”

“That fragging aft-headed glitch!” Smokescreen growled as he got up and paced towards to door only to look back at his brother. “Hasn’t he done enough to her already!” his anger vanished as something occurred to him. “Did you say Skyfire found them?” Prowl nodded “and?”

“You will have to ask Skyfire what went on between them as I was busy sorting out a certain mech.” The tactician replied knowing what his brother was asking.

The blue and red Datsun walked back over and sat down, “has she met Bluestreak yet?” he asked curious.

“Not as far as I know. Even when they meet I doubt they will recognise one another.” Prowl answered. “He was quite young.”

Smokescreen shook his head sadly, “you’ve got to be sorry for the mech. After all this time of trying to hide it all from him, and generally keeping him safe, it’s all going to come out now.”


	5. Chapter 5

_“Has she met Bluestreak yet?”_

 

 

“Not as far as I know. Even when they meet I doubt they will recognise one another. He was quite young.”

 _“You’ve got to be sorry for the mech. After all this time of trying to hide it all from him, and generally keeping him safe, it’s all going to come out now.”_  
Bluestreak sat in the rec room thinking about the conversation he’d overheard, he had just been walking past Prowl’s office when he heard his name, being curious he stopped to listen to the rest of the conversation. It made him wonder who they were talking about, it was obvious that Smokescreen was talking about one of the femmes since he had said ‘she’ but that could mean any of them. It made him wonder what this femme was suppose to be to him, he’d already met two of them and hadn’t felt…well anything. Were they some past lover or something? No that was stupid considering Prowl said he was quite young at the time, but what were they hiding from him and what was all this about keeping him ‘safe’? It just didn’t make sense at all.

\------  
Storm stormed into the brig and glared at the mech in the cell. “I do not take kindly to someone trying to kill a member of my team.” She said highly annoyed. Sunstreaker ignored her as he lay on his back, arms crossed behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. The learjet growled, “Are you not even going to explain to me why you attacked the…kindest femme under my command?” again she got nothing; she growled and turned to go seeing a red mech in the doorway. “You’re in charge of them?” he asked. “I’m team leader, yes. Why?” she had a feeling she knew where this was going, where it always went.

“Then it’s your fault my brother’s here.”

“Excuse me?” Storm’s optics narrowed, she was still very much annoyed that the other mech had tried to kill her friend and teammate. It now bordered on anger as the mech in front of her accused her of something that wasn’t her fault. “Your _brother_ nearly killed my team-mate.” She stated.

“Only because he was provoked.” Sideswipe said defending Sunstreaker as he walked towards his brother’s cell.

“And how _exactly_ did Lightning do that, hmmm?” not believing him and turning to follow him, she wasn’t going to let the mech out of her sight. She’d learned the hard way to never let anyone get behind her when she was on her own. “She is not the kind to…”

“Had you said that a long time ago we would have believed you.” Sideswipe interrupted.

Storm’s anger and annoyance was suddenly replaced by confusion. “You knew her back then?”

Sunstreaker, who was now standing at the front of his cell next to Sideswipe, smirked. “She didn’t tell you about us, did she?” His smirk grew as he saw anger starting to mix with the femme’s confusion. “About the times we spent together.” He then stressed out each and every word seeing the anger rise in the learjet's optics. _“How we knew each other intimately.”_ The white and ocean blue learjet stormed out having heard enough.

Sideswipe turned to his brother, “that was mean, Sunny. What if Lightning didn’t want anyone else to know about your relationship?”

The yellow mech chuckled darkly, “oops.”

\----  
Lightning was in the rec room happily talking with Jazz and Mirage when Storm walked in extremely annoyed. She had discussed with Starlight the night before about Sunstreaker’s revelation and had been told by the light yellow femme what happened when the blue-grey femme first saw the yellow and red mech’s. The one thing the white and Ocean blue femme couldn’t stand was secrets kept from her, especially if those secrets could harm both her and Starlight’s true identity. Though it surprised her slightly that Starlight was nowhere to be seen, normally the troublesome femme was the first to tell their teammate she was on the ‘warpath’ as she called it. So when she approached the femme instead of being annoyed and demanding an explanation she merely asked, “Where’s Starlight?” Lightning merely shrugged.

Jazz smirked and glanced at Mirage before looking back at Storm. He knew _exactly_ where Starlight was, but he wasn’t going to tell the femme trine leader that since it was none of her business what the light yellow learjet did in her spare time.

“Was there a reason you were looking for her?” Mirage asked.

“No.” Storm replied causally. “She’s just usually the one to warn Lightning if I’m annoyed.”

Lightning chuckled, “well I haven’t seen her, probably keeping away from you if she’s done something.”

“Surprisingly she’s not the one I’m annoyed with.” The femme said giving her teammate a stern look.

Bewildered by the look Lightning asked, “Why are you looking at me like that for?”

“I had a very interesting chat with Sunstreaker about you yesterday.”

Jazz looked over at Lightning and saw the way the femme froze and dread enter her optics. Everyone was well aware of what the yellow warrior had done to the femme, but he could tell that the look on her face wasn’t related to that. No, this was a deep-seated dread, fear that something from the femme’s past had been dragged up that she had tried so hard to bury and forget.

“Would you like me to repeat what he told me?” it wasn’t a question, more like a virtual threat as a dangerous fury shone in the white and ocean blue femme’s optics as she stared at her friend. Before anything else could be said Lightning fled from the rec room, Storm was about to follow when a hand grabbed her wrist she looked back to see Jazz holding her. She glared at him.

“Let her go.” He told her calmly “when she’s ready, she’ll tell ya what happened between ‘em.”

Storm opened her mouth to give a sharp reply only to be interrupted by Mirage.  
“Jazz is right. Whatever happened between them hurt her deeply. You may not have seen it, Storm, but it terrified her to hear you bring it up.”

The femme sighed and gave a small smile. “It’s good to see her finally have friends that care about her as much as Starlight and I do.”

\-----  
Lightning wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, she was between going to yell at Sunstreaker for revealing what went on between them and going to her quarters and crying her optics out. Just as she had made a decision a voice called out “Lightning.” She turned to them and a smile appeared as she saw who it was, she ran and hugged them.  
“It’s been awhile, Smokescreen.” She said releasing the mech from the hug.

“Too long if you ask me.” Smokescreen said “to be honest I’d thought you’d...”

“I guess we were just lucky, not even I know how we managed to survive.” She interrupted knowing what the red and blue mech was going to say.

“We should catch up sometime, I’m sure we’ve a lot to tell each other.” He looked around and lowered his voice before saying “he’s here you know.”

“If you’re talking about Sunstreaker I...” Lightning stopped mid-sentence as she saw the mech shake his head. She began to shake slightly, her wings twitching. “P-Prowl didn’t t-tell me th-that he...” she stuttered.

“I’m sure he didn’t want to upset you.” Smokescreen said placing a hand on her shoulder, both to reassure and comfort the femme.

The blue-grey learjet sighed and looked down at the floor, “Smokey?” she said tentatively.

“Yes?”

“You broke your promise.” She told him quietly.

Confused the Datsun asked, “My promise?”

Lightning nodded, “yes. You promised me that my father wouldn’t forget me, but he has. I met him last week and he had no idea who I was.” Holding back the tears as she remembered the encounter.

Smokescreen could do nothing but stare at the sadden learjet. He opened his mouth to say something but there was nothing he _could_ say, instead he just pulled her into a hug and whispered in her audio, “I’m so sorry.”


	6. Chapter 6

Another battle with those accursed Autobots ending once again in failure thanks to those stupid learjets and once again it was him, Starscream, who got the blame for it all. How he wished he knew where those damned flyers came from and _how exactly_ they’d managed to survive when all the others didn’t. The seeker’s thoughts were interrupted when he heard his name harshly called out...

“Starscream! You told me, _assured_ me that there were _NO_ neutral flyers left. Yet these three exist, and worst still they’re Autobots!” Megatron almost screamed at his second-in-command.

“I-I _assure_ you, Lord Megatron, I had no idea of their existence. Had I of known I would have _personally_ terminated them myself.” Starscream virtually grovelled.

This seemed to appease the warlord slightly and he sat back in his chair, he was silent for a moment looking over at the computers and monitors that adorned the control room. Finally he turned back to the tricoloured seeker, “either find a way to stop those slagging jets or learn to cope _without wings!_ Now get out of my sight!” he spat menacingly.

Starscream virtually ran from the room uttering curses at both Megatron and the Autobot jets. _How **dare** Megatron threaten to remove my wings!_ He thought angrily as he stormed down the corridor. His anger subsided however when he entered the communal area of his trine’s quarters, for their sat Skywarp a thoroughly confused look upon his face.  
“He’s been like that ever since we came back from the last battle.” A voice said making the seeker look over “he won’t tell me what’s wrong and just keeps muttering the same thing over and over.”

“And what would that be, Thundercracker?” the air commander asked grumpily folding his arms across his chest.

“It’s impossible.” The blue seeker answered.

Confused, Starscream lower his arms and asked “What’s impossible?”

Thundercracker shrugged, “that’s what you’ll have to ask him.” Jerking with his thumb over at Skywarp.

The tricoloured seeker gave a small growl and looked back over at his confused trinemate, “Skywarp.” He said in a commanding tone, having the black seeker look over at him “what’s impossible?” he asked trying not to sound to intrigued or confused about the whole situation he suddenly found himself in.

“It is entirely impossible, Starscream. Don't you see? It just can’t be, it just can’t!” Skywarp replied.

“Tell me what is, you aft headed glitch!” Starscream snarled.

The black seeker narrowed his optics at the comment before storming off to his quarters, “forget it, you wouldn’t understand anyway!”

“Whatever!” Starscream said storming off for his quarters also, leaving Thundercracker alone with his thoughts.

_What would confuse ‘Warp like this so much?_ The blue seeker wondered _I’ve never seen him like this before, it’s like...like something from his past has returned to haunt..._ a sudden thought entered Thundercracker’s mind and he couldn’t help but have his mouth fall open at the revelation. _No._ He thought half shocked as he stared at his trinemate’s door _that’s just not possible._

\---  
Optimus Prime entered the medbay and gave a small internal chuckle at the sight he saw. Ratchet was lecturing the light yellow femme at how stupid she had been getting in the way of the shot meant for him when the medic knew quite well that he could take care of himself. “He had his back to the shot for primus sake! Now unless you tell me our Prime has optics in the back of his helm then I highly doubt that he would have known of it until it _hit_ him.” The learjet shot back. Optimus decided it was time to make his presence known after seeing the murderous glare the ambulance gave the femme.  
“Starlight is quite right, Ratchet.”

Both Cybertronians looked over at the voice. “Thank you. See!” Starlight said gesturing over at the semi.

“However, Ratchet is also right, Starlight.” Optimus said.

Both mech and femme grumbled before resuming what they were doing before the Prime walked in, which in Starlight’s case was to just lay there while Ratchet saw to her repairs.

“Was there something you wanted, Prime?” the medic asked gruffly.

“I wanted to see how Starlight was, and to thank her.”

Starlight smiled smugly at Ratchet who would have rolled his optics if he could. “Her head doesn’t need to be any bigger, Prime.”

Optimus chuckled as he heard the mutterings of “frag you, Ratchet.” Apparently so had the medic, as Starlight gave a small yelp of pain and glared up at the ambulance. The semi interrupted him just as the white and red mech was about to say something. “I would like a word with Starlight in private if you don’t mind, Ratchet.”

This seemed to appease the ambulance somewhat as he gave a small chuckle himself, “be my guest. I can always fix that bent wing later.” He said smugly and walked towards his office.

“What? No...” Starlight began as she sat up only to have the office door close on her words “fragging slagger.” She muttered crossing her arms over her chest.

Optimus had to resist the urge to sigh and shake his head, he walked over to the now annoyed femme who was still muttering curses about the ambulance. “Starlight, as much as I appreciate your help in the earlier battle I need to know if...” he didn’t get to finish as pink optics widen and her mouth fell open in shocked surprise at what he was implying

“You think that...that I did that to _prove_ myself to you? Slag no! I would have done it for any Autobot! I don’t care _what_ they’ll all think when they eventually find out, I’ve lived with it ever since I joined up. Why should I suddenly have to think that I need to prove anything to anyone now I’m here? This is no different to Cybertron! Different battle ground maybe, but that’s it.” She got off the mediberth and stormed out, completely forgetting about her bent wing.

Optimus stood there stunned by the femme’s words, it seemed that they had been through more than he realised. He would have to start thinking differently on how he approached and spoke to the learjets regarding their actions.  
Over the next week all three femmes never spoke a word to anyone on the Ark, except when they needed to. Even Prowl and Smokescreen could not get a word out of Lightning, having never seen the femme like this they both decided to ‘corner’ her under the pretence of calling her to Prowl’s office. One hour passed then two after two and a half hours Prowl looked at the mech pacing his office.  
“Smokescreen, I would appreciate it if you didn’t wear a hole in my floor.”

“She’s not coming, Prowl.” he suddenly stated as he stopped and looked at his brother.

“Why would she disobey an order from a senior officer? We both know she is not like that.” Prowl reminded him.

“You’ll see.” Smokescreen muttered and continued his pacing.

Another hour past and Prowl finally conceded that his brother was right, the blue-grey learjet was indeed not going to show.  
“This is not like her.” He stated.

“This _entire_ thing is not like her.” The older Datsun commented.

\---  
Skywarp sat on a cliff as close as he could to the Ark without setting off any Autobot alarms, his optics were off as he concentrated. He was _sure_ he had sensed the presence of Solarflare in one of those Autobot flyers, felt that certain...tingle that only occurred when his sister was near, but that was impossible...wasn’t it? His sister was dead, killed in a Decepticon raid on a neutral flyer settlement. No one had survived, Starscream himself had seen to it. The black seeker scoffed, Starscream, that mech was so up his own aft it was amazing he could do anything. Which meant that perhaps there was a possibility...Skywarp onlined his optics only to jump back slightly when he saw a worried face so close in front of him. “Thundercracker!” though his trinemate’s arrival worried him, was he so deep in thought that he didn’t hear the blue seeker’s jets as he hovered in front of him? It could have been an Autobot coming behind him and wouldn’t even have known.

“Sorry ‘Warp.” Thundercracker apologised as he sat next to him on the cliff. There was silence for a few moments before he asked “you okay?”

“I...I...I think she’s alive, TC.” The black seeker revealed.

Thundercracker looked at his trinemate in surprise “‘Warp, how can that be possible? We saw for ourselves the wreckage of that settlement.” It was something the blue mech would never forget, that raid was what made him doubt the Decepticon cause.

Skywarp looked at his trinemate, slight annoyance in his optics. “But we never found _them_ did we, Thundercracker. We just assumed they had both died in the attack. Well I’m telling you now that Solarflare is alive, I felt her...I think.” He concluded sadly as he looked back at the view.

Thundercracker placed a hand on the black mech’s shoulder, “I think these Autobot flyers are playing with your mind. No one could have survived that attack...” he held his hand up to stop whatever Skywarp was about to say “and besides, none of them even _look_ like Solarflare.” Skywarp sighed knowing Thundercracker was right, but still couldn’t shake the feeling.


	7. Chapter 7

Skyfire had just finished a debriefing from a long haul mission he had been on and upon hearing what his fellow Autobots were saying about all the femme’s behaviour, he was quite sure that Lightning, _his_ Lightning, would not participate in such...youngling-like behaviour. Only to be proved wrong as he turned the corner, for there was the blue-grey femme ignoring all those that spoke to her as she headed down the corridor towards the rec room. Believing his optics to be deceiving him he followed her, he needed energon anyway. He watched as the learjet met up with the other femmes and greeted them happily. He saw the white and ocean blue femme give him a stern look before they all entered the rec room. Still in slight shock Skyfire followed them in this was not Lightning he knew, the Lightning he brought up. Upon entering the rec room the mech’s shock and surprise began to turn into annoyance and anger as more mechs tried to talk to the three femmes and were each ignored. He walked over to them keeping his anger in check he calmly said, “Lightning, please follow me.” The femme did not move or even acknowledge his presence, finally his anger exploded. If she wanted to act like a youngling then he would treat her as one. “You will follow me or I will drag you by your wings!” he said sternly.  
That did it, not only did it draw the attention of the entire room but white hands shot out instantly to tell the other two not to take any action, though it did not stop yellow and pink optics from glaring at him murderously. After a few moments Lightning stood up and followed Skyfire out of the room. As they headed down the corridor he asked, “Why are you acting like this?” no response “Very well, you want to act like a youngling then I will treat you such.”

Lightning stopped dead in her tracks and looked at the white mech, anger and confusion in her optics. “What?” she asked, her voice slightly higher than a whisper.

Skyfire stopped, turned and looked at her trying his hardest to stay stern in his scolding and not breakdown at those confused yellow optics. “You heard me. I shall tell Prime that you are no longer able to participate in battle.”

“Who the slag do you think you are treating me like this!” the learjet suddenly yelled angrily.

“Your father!” Skyfire replied just as annoyed “and before you say anything else, I had not forgotten about you. I had asked about you soon after I was found only to be told you were either a con or...dead.” his voice faltered upon the last word not wanting to think about that possibility.

“I-I...” Lightning stuttered as her anger dissipated looking sadly down at the floor.

Skyfire sighed and walked back over to her placing his hands on her shoulders. “Having lived with that knowledge for so long it...was difficult to accept what you told me the first time we met.” He told her gently lifting her head to look at him “though I now realise who you are, you are Lightning...my sparkling.” Lightning couldn’t contain it anymore; she broke into tears and hugged him, which he gladly returned.

**_Her father?_** Starlight commed Storm in surprise as the two femmes watched from their hiding spot.

**_Would explain his tone to her in the rec room._** Storm mused.  
After what happened with Sunstreaker, and Skyfire’s outburst in the rec room the two learjets decided to follow them...just in case their friend needed help.

\---  
Optimus sat in his office going over reports, it was almost three weeks since the femme’s had ‘gone silent’ on them and he had just about enough. Skyfire told him he had already spoken to Lightning and gradually she was starting to speak to everyone again but that still left two to deal with.  
There came a knock at his door, “Come in.” He called out. Storm walked in but said nothing, just stood and waited for him to speak. “Storm, I want you and Starlight to stop this. It will not help either of you when the time comes.”

“Neither did being friendly and happy on Cybertron. They all thought we were after their secrets, befriending them only to betray them when the time came. Do you know what that feels like, Prime, do you? No, of course you don’t.” She almost spat.

“I will not lie to you, Storm. There are a few here that will treat you like that, but many will not care who you are related to and will treat you as Lightning does. But if you continue on with this...silent treatment of yours, it will be harder for them to think of you anything but spies.” The semi internally grimace at his last words _bad choice of words there, Optimus._ He thought.

Storm look at the Autobot leader's desk as she thought his words through carefully. Back on Cybertron the planet was virtually crawling with Decepticons, here on Earth it was virtually even. Finally she looked up at him and gave a nod.  
“Very well, though I must ask something of you.”

“Yes?” he asked a little surprised that she hadn’t stormed out of his office.

“That you apologise to Starlight. She was quite upset that you thought she took that shot just to prove a point.” The white and ocean blue femme said.

“Very well, I shall...” he gave a small smile behind his faceplate and inwardly chuckled “apologise to her for what I said.”

“Thank you.” Storm said and turned to go.

“While you are on patrol with Jazz.” Optimus couldn’t keep the amusement out of his voice.

The learjet stopped and turned back to him, “Jazz?”

“Jazz.”

“I thought...” she began.

“Prowl seems to think that pairing you with others will beneficial for everyone.” Optimus explained.

“And you agreed with him.” Storm sighed “I don’t have _every_ patrol with him, right?”

“That you will have to ask Prowl.” He replied.

“Great.” She muttered and walked out.

The semi chuckled and stood heading towards the door, there was something he had to do before ‘apologising’ to Starlight.

\----  
Bluestreak walked into Prowl’s office slightly nervous, ever since he overheard the conversation between Prowl and Smokescreen it had plagued him who they had been talking about. What was this femme to him and what were they keeping him safe from?

“Is something wrong, Bluestreak?” Prowl asked as he placed his datapad down.

“I uh...I...” the grey mech began.

“Yes?”

_Pull yourself together, Blue. You have a right to know what they were talking about; after all they were talking about you, right? Right._ The grey Datsun told himself “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Ask away.” Prowl inwardly flinched, that sounded like something Jazz would say; perhaps he was spending too much time with the saboteur.

Bluestreak gave a small smile. “I uh...I overheard a conversation a few weeks ago...” he began.

Prowl didn’t like where this was going and knew Smokescreen would want to be here for this so he send a message to his brother to get his aft over to his office immediately. “Oh?”

“Yes. Normally I would never be one to eavesdrop but I heard my name mentioned so I became curious and well, started to listen...” the grey Datsun was getting more nervous as he spoke.

“Go on.”

“Well...uh...these…these mechs were saying that they were trying to keep me safe and that I wouldn’t recognise someone even if I met them and I...” he stopped as he saw Prowl’s doorwing twitching “and I have to go now.” He hurriedly said sprinting for the door only to meet someone on the other side. “S-S-Smokescreen.” He stuttered as he started walking backwards.

“Hey Blue, anything wrong?” the blue and red mech asked as he walked in.

“It appears our conversation was overheard by Bluestreak here.” Prowl explained calmly as he continued to work on his datapad.

Smokescreen looked over at his brother who paused in his work to give a nod then back at Bluestreak. “I’d never pin you as a eavesdropper, Bluestreak.”

“I wasn’t! I swear I wasn’t! I just happened to be walking past when you mention my name and...got curious.” The grey mech said half panicking.

“In answer to your unasked questions,” Prowl began placing the datapad to the side of his desk, he stood and walked to the younger Datsun. “I’m afraid we cannot tell you who we were talking about or from what we were... _are_ keeping you safe from.”

“But...” Bluestreak protested.

“When the time is right they will let you know themselves.” Smokescreen said placing a hand on Bluestreak’s shoulder.

The grey mech sighed “okay, but it’s killing me not knowing.”

“We know.” the blue and red Datsun said gently “we know.”


	8. Chapter 8

It had been three days since Sunstreaker had been released from the brig. He sat in his quarters, he wasn’t allowed to go anywhere without his brother, much to Sideswipe’s annoyance, and when Sides wasn’t around he was to stay in their quarters. He looked boredly around the room having already done everything three times over; the only thing left to do was recharge until the next day. There came a knock at the door, no doubt someone delivering his energon, he walked over an answered it surprised at who it was.

“Sideswipe asked if I could keep you company.” The grey Datsun said with two energon cubes in his hands.

A small smirk appeared on the Lamborghini’s face _Prime never said anything about visitors_  he thought as he let the mech in.

\---  
“Ya know who ya remind meh of?” Jazz suddenly said as he and Storm were doing one of their patrols.

Storm sighed and replied in a bored tone. “No, but you’re no doubt going to tell me.” This is why she didn’t want to patrol with the saboteur, he never shut up.

“Prowl.” The Porsche answered causally.

Storm was so surprised she almost fell out of the sky. “You-wha-how-no.” She spluttered, “Why would you even _think_ that?!”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Jazz countered as he inwardly chuckled “ya both anti-social...”

“I am not! I...” the femme complained.

“Starlight and Lightnin’ don’ count.” Jazz interrupted.

“Fine.” She conceded “what else?”

“Ya both only think of workin’.”

“Okay, now I _know_ that’s not true.” The learjet said almost in triumph thinking she’d ‘won’.

“Not accordin’ ta a couple of femme’s.” Jazz said causally with a smile.

“A couple of dead femmes when I get back.” Storm muttered.

“Ya don’t show much emotion.”

“Not much emotion!? I’ll show you not much...” she stopped as she heard the mech chuckle. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Wanted ta see how ya’d react.” He replied.

“Great, another one that likes to get me annoyed.” She sighed “as if Starlight wasn’t enough.”

“Why do ya stick so close ta ‘em anyway?” the Porsche asked curious.

Storm was silent a moment, shocked by the question. “I’m their lead...”

“Doesn’t mean ya have ta spent virtually every minute with ‘em.” The mech countered.

\----  
Starlight was lying on her berth relaxing as she read in her quarters when she suddenly shot up in a panic, datapad falling to the floor with a clang. _No_ she thought horrified _he can’t of found me that fast._ She sped out of her quarters, with Storm on patrol with Jazz she didn’t want to distract her and went to get only other member of their team. She found the blue-grey learjet in the rec room talking with Skyfire and Smokescreen, she went over grabbed the femme’s arm and dragged her out much to everyone’s surprise.

“I’ll be right back.” Lightning called out to the worried looks of her father and Smokescreen. Once out of the rec room the femme yanked her arm back. “Would you mind telling me why you just dragged me out of there in front of my father and brother?” she asked slightly annoyed.

Starlight stared at her in confusion, “Smokescreen is your brother?”

“Virtually. His and Prowl’s creators virtually raised me when dad went missing.” the blue-grey learjet explained.

The light yellow femme shook her head getting back to more important matters. “I think, though I hope to Primus I’m wrong, he’s found me.”

“Not…”

“Yeah.” Starlight confirmed.

“Have you told Storm yet?” Lightning asked. The only time Starlight came to her first was when she didn’t know how to let their friend and leader to know.

“Not yet, she’s on patrol with Jazz.”

“Then we better tell her, she’d only get angry if we waited until she got back.” Lightning told her.

“We should let Prime know also.” Starlight said as they started for her quarters.

“Prime?! Are you insane!?” Lightning said amazed as she looked at her teammate.

“He already knows about them anyway. Maybe he can help.” she reasoned with a shrug.

“I say we let Storm decide.” the blue-grey femme said “after all, she’s gotten you both this far.”

 _And I know exactly what she’ll say._ Starlight thought sadly.

As they hurriedly made their way to the light yellow femme’s quarters they passed Bluestreak.  
“Hi Starlight.” he greeted cheerily, she walked straight past him without a word confusing the mech.

Lightning stopped and stood looking at the grey mech partly shocked. Smokescreen’s words running though her head when she first saw the blue and red Datsun. _“He’s here you know.”_ “Bluestreak.” she said quietly.

The grey Datsun turned to the femme a smile on his face, “Hi.”

“Lightning, come on.” Starlight called from the end of the corridor “We don’t have time to stand and chat.”

The learjet looked over at her teammate, seeing the annoyed look on her face, and back at Bluestreak. How she wanted to hold the mech and apologise for everything, but she had to see to her team first. After all, what was a few more days compared to the years she hadn’t spent in contact? After a few more moments of staring she set off in Starlight’s direction leaving a bewildered Bluestreak in her wake.


	9. Chapter 9

Starlight was right, Storm hated the idea of telling Prime that they may have been found out. She instead insisted the light yellow femme try and block them as much as she could, or let either her or Lightning handle him while she took care of the others. She knew it wouldn't last long though, in her spark there was only one outcome. So a couple of weeks later when Storm was out on her weekly patrol and Lightning was with Skyfire she went to see Prime.

"Is there something I can do for you, Starlight?" The Autobot leader asked placing his datapad on the desk.

"I hope so, but I doubt it." She replied taking a seat though she kept her optics firmly glued to his desk.

Optimus waited patiently for her to start seeing how nervous she was. It seemed strange to him that out of the mechs in the Ark he was the one whose company she sort out when her teammates were busy with other things. He was not going to condone her for it though especially since all three femmes were starting to come out of their shells and feel comfortable around the base, felt like they _belonged_ there. He was willing to bet that they hadn't felt like that in a long time.  
"I...I-I think he's found me." She finally said still not looking at him.

"Your brother?" The semi asked wanting to clarify what she said, he received a nod in reply. "Has he made any move to contact you?"

"No, Storm won't..." She stopped, finally looking up at him a mixture of shock, relief and annoyance on her face. "You knew, didn't you?"

He gave a nod, "it was not hard to see that there was something going on, and that Lightning and Storm kept intervening whenever he came close to you."

Starlight was suddenly up out of her chair and walking across the room while half ranting, "I told Storm it wouldn't work. They probably figured it out too, haven't they?" She said turning back to him.

"Probably." Prime replied, which meant that in the next battle either or both of them would point it out and all the femmes would revert into themselves again. He had tried to make his Autobots see who the femmes really were so as not to judge them when the inevitable truth came out but it would take time, a time he didn't seem to have.

The light yellow learjet sighed and looked dejectedly down at the floor, “great." She muttered.

Seeing how upset the femme was, Optimus walked over to her placing his hands on her shoulders "it all depends how smart they are." He said joking lightly and hearing her give a small chuckle, he was surprised when the femme suddenly hugged him a minute later. He stared at her in shock for a few moments before giving a soft smile behind his faceplate and returning the hug. It wasn't until Starlight felt arms around her that she realised what she was doing. She was hugging Optimus frigging Prime, fragging leader of the Autobots. She hurriedly pulled out of the embrace, "s-sorry." She apologised and dashed out of the room Optimus stared at his office door for a few moments before he saw a new problem that would arise but it was one that could easily be stopped before it even started. The thing was, he didn't want to stop it, he wanted to see want the outcome would be. He chuckled to himself before going back to his work, halfway across the room a thought suddenly occurred to him and he went out in search of a certain mech instead.

\-------

Starscream sat in his trines communal area thinking about all the recent battles they had with the Autobot jets, he had noticed that the white and ocean blue and blue-grey planes were 'protecting' the light yellow one from Skywarp. He had also noticed the black seekers focus was concentrated elsewhere, ever since the Autobot jet's arrival. Could it be that the two knew each other? An evil smirk appeared on his face, if that we're true then he could use that information against them maybe even perhaps have the other Autobots doubt their loyalty. As he thought more about it he began to realise that Thundercracker was also acting a bit odd his smirk grew at the thought of doing even more damage to those annoying Autobot flyers. First, he'd have to find out the truth as to what happened between his trinemates and the flyers. When Skywarp and Thundercracker entered their communal area they found the air commander grinning like a mad mech.  
"What do you think he's planning this time?" Skywarp asked.

"I don't think he's planning anything, I think he figured it out." Thundercracker said.

"Do you think we should tell him?"

"Yes, what exactly have I figured out, Thundercracker?" A voice asked.

"That Warp's sister's alive..." The blue seeker stopped and suddenly looked over at the voice along with Skywarp.

Both of them saw Starscream now staring at them, highly interested in their conversation.  
"You never told me you had a sister, Skywarp." Oh this was delightful news, better than he could have hoped for. Skywarp said nothing "could it be that it's because she's an Autobot." He half mocked.

Thundercracker was starting to get worried about his friend, after years of thinking sister was dead he'd finally found out that she had survived, which was why they never found the bodies, but to find out that she was an Autobot on the same day...he wasn't sure he could handle it. In fact he couldn't, knowing how close Solarflare and Lazer were he was quite sure that one of the other learjets was _his_ sister. He'd gone off to scream out his anger and take it out on anything he could, that was when Skywarp had found him and brought him back to base after strangely helping him to calm down.

"No." Skywarp said sternly and forcefully surprising both mechs and having Thundercracker look back at him. "Solarflare died a long time ago. Whoever that femme is, she is _not_ my sister."

"I'll take that as a yes." Starscream said bemused and receiving a glare in return. He looked over at Thundercracker "and what's your connection to them?"

Thundercracker looked over at him in shock, how did he find out? "M-my connection?" Cursing himself for stuttering "why would I have any connection with those flyers?" The tricoloured seeker was clearly not amused that he seemed to be hiding the fact that he knew one of them well.

The Decepticon second-in-command thought for a moment, he then began listing all the things that the flyers could be trying to trip up the blue seeker. "Ex-lover?" No reaction, he narrowed his optics at his next choice. If it were true he'd slag him himself then hand whatever was left over to Megatron to deal with, "current lover?" Still no reaction, well that was good at least.

"Starscream,"

"Sister?"

"I don..." Thundercracker stopped immediately.

 _Bingo_ Starscream thought. "So you both have sisters that are Autobots, delightful." His voice taking on an evil tone as he said the word 'delightful' and a smirk reappearing on his face.

"I told you, Solarflare is dead." Skywarp fumed.


	10. Chapter 10

Storm walked into the rec room for her morning energon and became instantly annoyed at he fact that the room went quiet when they saw her. She knew this would be their reaction, _stupid mechs_ she thought. The news from yesterday's mission had spread like wildfire, no thanks to Cliffjumper, and she had no doubt that every bot on the base knew the truth about her and Starlight. She stood there her arms now folded across her chest, "come on then," She demanded "out with it." Having dealt with years of distrust on Cybertron she was no stranger to they would say and think of them, she only felt sorry for Lightning who would, once again, have to live through the barrage of questions as why she hung round with them.

"Out with what?" Bumblebee asked breaking the silence

"I know you are accusing Starlight and I behind our backs, so why don't you just come out and say it." The white and ocean blue learjet said not realising her voice was breaking near the end.

"We're not accusing you of anything, Storm." Wheeljack said.

"Yeah right. We've been accused our whole lives because of who our family members are. Even though we just wanted to fit in, be like for who we are not who we're related to." Tears were falling from the femme's optics but she took no notice of them. "Even when we changed our identities to distance ourselves we were still judged by who our family was, and it's all because you're all load of slagging afts!" She ran out of the room leaving mechs shocked and dismayed at her outburst. Storm ran through the corridors of the Ark. Tears still streaming from her optics, she couldn’t let Starlight or Lightning see her like this. She was the one that kept them all together, the one who stayed strong and pulled them through the hard and tough times. She ran for the entrance pushing past a couple of mechs as she transformed and flew off into the distance.

"Was that...Storm?" One mech asked his companion "and was she...crying?"

"Seemed like it. I'm gonna follow her and stop her from doin’ anythin' stupid. Ya let Prime know."

"But Ja..." Too late, the Porsche was already gone.

\-----  
"Starlight, come on. You have to come out sometime." Lightning said hoping to get her friend and teammate out of her room.

"No! I'm not coming out!" Starlight's voice shouted through the door "I...don't want to see those looks on their faces." She continued a little sadder and quieter.

Lightning groaned and lightly hit her head against Starlight's door, _stupid Starscream and his stupid big mouth_ she thought annoyed. _I'll kick his slagging aft all the way back to Cybertron for this._ She sighed, things had been going so well, her friends were actually starting to make...well...friends! Then that Decepticon seeker had ruined it all.

_FLASHBACK_  
“Well well well, look what we have here.” Starscream said as he, Thundercracker and Skywarp landed in front of the Autobot group.

“What the slag do you want, Decepticon?” Storm said harshly as the three femmes stood to protect the other Autobots, Starlight making sure she stood as far away from Skywarp as possible.

“It doesn’t matter what they want, we’re not letting them get past us.” Starlight said.

“We’re not here to interrupt your pathetic mission, we’re merely here to expose your secret. Something I’m betting you haven’t told your Autobot friends over there.” Starscream said almost smugly.

Lightning took a quick look back and saw the rest of their small group looking over intrigued by what the tricoloured seeker was on about. She silently prayed to primus that the mech wouldn’t reveal it, and that he was just trying to threaten them maybe even blackmail. Though she couldn’t help but feel sheer dread deep within her spark that said their ‘happiness’ was over.

Skywarp’s optics widened as he felt that familiar ‘feeling’ he always had when his sister was around, he stared at the light yellow femme and upon seeing her pink optics said in shocked surprise, “‘Flare?” Starlight gasped before she knew it, he’d finally figured out who she was. This was so not good, she heard Storm growl beside her. Storm looked over at Thundercracker, a harsh glare in her optics and was almost surprised to see sadness in his, he kept her gaze a moment longer before looking away at the ground.  
“Storm…” Starlight trailed off as she looked at her younglinghood friend, a helpless looked on her face as well as in her voice.

The white and ocean blue femme’s hands curled into fists that began to shake and her wings twitched as she looked back at Starscream, her yellow optics narrowing in annoyance as she saw a smug smile grow on the air commander’s face.  
“You think that’ll stop us from kicking your afts in battle? Think we’ll suddenly turn into frightened little sparklings and run to seek comfort in those we thought we could trust,” she almost growled out, glancing over at the blue seeker. “We’ve lived with this…curse all our lives, why should now be any different.”

Starscream looked over at Starlight who tried to look as annoyed as Storm but he could see the fear in her optics, “You seem to be doing just that.” he said smugly.

“You leave Starlight alone! You hear me!?” Lightning suddenly burst out surprising her teammates and making them look at her.

The tricoloured seeker’s attention suddenly focused on the blue-grey femme, his annoyance suddenly replaced by a smirk.  
“I don’t know how you can manage to stay around these two.” He began, as he gestured at them before glancing over at Storm who still looked angry then at Starlight who now had a pleading look in her optics as if asking him not to reveal their true identities. “Considering they’re Skywarp and Thundercracker’s sisters.”

A collective gasp came from behind the femme learjets.  
“YOU SON OF A…” all the Autobots were surprised that it was Lightning, not Storm, that had…exploded. She lunged at Starscream in an attempt to punch him in the face. Skywarp shot the femme effectively pushing her back only to be shot in the wing by Storm. He snarled at her, ignoring the pain, Thundercracker’s sister or not she was going to pay for that.

Starscream was highly amused by the situation however, looking over the small group of Autobots behind the femmes and seeing the first signs of distrust arise. “I believe we’ve caused enough ‘damage’ here, let’s go.” He said with a smirk and flying off.

Skywarp followed while Thundercracker stayed back a moment. He went to walk over to the white and ocean blue learjet only to have a weapon aimed at him from said femme. “Take another step and it’ll be the last thing you ever do.” She threatened dangerously. The blue seeker couldn’t believe it, this was his sister? Her optics held nothing but hatred for them, for _him_. No, that couldn’t be. If he got her on her own then he would see that she was just as she had been all those years ago.

“Thundercracker!” Starscream called out seeing him linger behind. Thundercracker looked at his ‘sister’ for a few more moments before following his trinemates.

“Storm, wha…” Starlight began sadly as she attended to Lightning.

“Not now, Starlight!” Storm snapped.  
_END FLASHBACK_

Lightning sighed and lifted her head from the door, rubbing at her cockpit. Had Skywarp's shot been a couple more centimetres to the right he would have hit her spark. She shuddered as she remembered how close she came to dying. Though this whole incident had shown her something. Maybe it was time they all knew, but would they ever forgive her for it?


	11. Chapter 11

Optimus felt the form of a headache coming on. Starlight refused to come out of her quarters, Jazz was still tracking down Storm and Lightning...well, he wasn't quite sure what was wrong with the blue-grey learjet but he could tell that there was _something_ wrong. He'd approach Prowl about it later, right now he had to deal with the aftermath of a loud-mouthed seeker. He would have thought three days would have been plenty of time to...adjust, guess he was wrong. Upon hearing his door open he looked up and saw a very irate medic walk in, he groaned inwardly what had he done to make primus hate him so.  
"You need to do something about that femme, Prime." Ratchet demanded. Optimus was about to ask which one when the mech continued, "I have just been rudely thrown out of her quarters."

"Thrown out?" The semi asked partly surprised, though he couldn't help the vision of Starlight lifting Ratchet above her head and throwing him out the door.

"She won't listen to anyone, not even Lightning."

"What makes you think she'll listen to me?" The Autobot leader asked. If the femme wasn't listening to her own teammate, someone she'd known for years, why would she listen to the leader of the Autobots?

A smile suddenly graced Ratchet's lips making it look strangely eerie against his annoyed features. "The two of you have been getting on well, and she seems to seek you out when she wants to talk."

"That is only when Storm and Lightning are not around, Ratchet." Optimus informed the medic.

The smile fell from the ambulance's face, "I told you that she won't listen to Lightning, and with Storm primus who knows where it's up to you. Now, you either talk to her and convince her to come out, or at the very least have some energon, or you can have a dead femme on your hands." He walked out leaving that half threat hanging in the air.

Optimus barely had a chance to sigh before Prowl walked in. _Primus, why do you hate me so?_ He thought. "I want to talk to you about Lightning." The Datsun began. The semi wanted to scream, it seemed that the only femme _not_ causing him trouble at this very moment was Storm.  
_**Jazz to Prime**_ he spoke to soon.

 ** _Yes Jazz_** he answered trying not to sound as tired as he suddenly felt.

 ** _Ya alright, Prime?_** The Porsche asked hearing the frustration in his leader’s voice.

 _ **Fine**_ the semi lied. The next time he saw Starscream he was going to pull him apart piece by piece frag his peaceful nature. _**Was there something you wanted?**_

**_Seems I ain't the only one looking for Storm. I've spotted Thundercracker a few times. He seems ta be searching for her also._ **

Optimus tried hard not to growl, if word got back that the blue seeker was looking the femme learjet then everyone would definitely label her as a con spy. **_Do what you can to find her first. Prime out._** He looked over at his second-in-command. "Prowl, unless you want to tell me that Lightning also has a secret family member who is a Decepticon, _you_ handle it." He walked out leaving a bewildered tactician in his wake.

The Autobot leader stormed towards Starlight's quarters, after a side trip to the rec room to grab a couple of cubes of energon and subspacing them, this had to be sorted now...before his head exploded. He typed in his override code and immediately ducked behind the wall as something was thrown at the door, as he looked in he saw the light yellow learjet grab something else to throw at him. "Starlight." He began as he cautiously walked in.

"GET OUT!" She yelled, "Get out get out get out!" Throwing item after item, not knowing or caring who the mech was she just wanted them out.

The Prime dodged item after item as he slowly made his way over to the femme, he grabbed her wrist just as she was about to throw something else his way. "Starlight." He said again. Surprised that the mech was still in her quarters and that he was now holding her wrist she dropped the item and looked up at him tears brimming her optics. Upon seeing the Autobot leader she held his gaze for a moment before looking away. Satisfied that the learjet was not going to throw any more items at him the semi let go of her wrist. He surveyed the room and saw that everything that could be thrown had been except for one photo frame, it sat happily on the shelf alone while everything else had been thrown. Starlight looked back at him curious as to why he wasn’t saying anything and saw he was staring at the picture frame, she suddenly dashed over to it and clutched it to her chest tightly her back to him. "May I see it?" Optimus asked kindly, he got a vigorous shake of her head ‘no’. "I would like you to stop hiding out in your quarters." He grimaced inwardly 'hiding out' was not a good way to put it.

"I'm not going out there." A small voice replied.

"May I ask why?"

"I wouldn't be able to stand the look of disappointment in their optics." She told him. “Not after they’d been so kind and friendly.”

"Did you know that Storm ran off?" He asked, trying to focus her on something other than the discomfort she felt. Perhaps even shed some light on where the learjet leader might be.

Starlight looked over at him in surprise. “Storm ran off?” she received a nod, she looked away from him again thinking then finally said, "She'll be okay, she always was the strongest out of the two of us."

Optimus walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder, he felt her tense up. "Would you at least take some energon? It would help get Ratchet off my back?" He lightly joked trying to inject some humour into the situation. He saw her look up at him with a confused look, "it would seem you threw him out earlier, he was not pleased."

The femme chuckled, "energon would be nice, thank you."

\-----  
Jazz had looked everywhere he could think of for Storm and he still had yet to find the elusive learjet. She wouldn't answer her comms and a call to her teammates, okay Lightning since Starlight also refused to answer her comms, yielded no answers either. Though with Thundercracker also out on the lookout for her he needed to double his efforts, he recalled that when she pushed past him she had been crying. _Now where would I go if I were an upset femme?_ He wondered to himself. He thought back to all their conversations during their patrols. _I think I know_ he thought and sped off.

\-----  
Storm sat in front of a river looking down at her reflection; a sad spark-broken face stared back at her. She suddenly punched the reflection in the water and looked away in anguish. Why? Why was this affecting her so much? She had lived with it ever since joining the Autobots, she’d seen distrust every day in the optics of the mechs and femmes on Cybertron so why was here any different? _Perhaps because you were starting to feel like you finally belonged somewhere. That you weren’t being treated like an ‘outsider’._ A voice in her head said, she sighed realising it was right. She _had_ been getting comfortable, for the first time in years she felt like others wanted her for who she was. An _Autobot_.  
She heard the sound of jet engines and ran behind some trees, she knew it wasn’t Starlight or Lightning and there would be no reason for Skyfire to be out looking for her that only left one possibility. She watched the blue seeker transform and land taking a look around.  
“Lazer.” Thundercracker called out “Lazer.”

“Leave me alone!” Storm replied before realising it, cursing herself for doing so afterwards. The fragging mech would never leave now.

Thundercracker turned in the direction of the voice, “I just want to talk to you.”

“I said go away!” a voice replied.

“But…I’m your brother. Aren’t you happy to see me?” he asked. This was definitely not the Lazer he once knew, even on her own the hatred he saw was still there he could hear it in her voice.

Storm narrowed her optics in her hiding spot, her anger boiling over. “See you? See you!” she seethed “you’re the slagging reason why I can’t live a normal life! The reason everyone dubs Starlight and I traitors and spies. The reason we _changed_. Your sister is dead, Thundercracker, she died a long time ago.”

“Then why do you still answer your name?” a gentle voice said from behind her. The white and ocean blue femme turned instantly and was surprised to see the blue seeker behind her; she gave a small gasp and started walking backwards. Seeing this Thundercracker grabbed hold of her arm. “Don’t be afraid of me, Lazer.” She growled at him and he gave a small smile “or would you prefer it if I called you Storm?”

“I’d prefer it if you let go.” Trying to get out of his grip.

“Why did you never contact me? Tell me you were okay?” he asked, ignoring her comment.

“Hm. Like you would care.” She replied bitterly looking away from him.

“Of course I care, I’m your brother.” He said annoyed and shaking her a little.

“I told you, your sister is dead. She died when she saw what the Decepticons really do, what _you_ do.” She told him “I fight to stop you halfwits from destroying other’s lives.”

“Skywarp and I had _nothing_ to do with that attack!” he explained.

“You expect me to believe that, believe that you just _happened_ to appear when it was all over. I saw you!” she looked away from him “and it killed me,” she continued softly “I always looked up to you, Thundercracker. You were my brother, my best friend and to see you cause all that…” she paused for a moment tears starting to brim her optics, before looking back at him with harsh ones. “I promised myself that day that I would never end up like you. I took Solarflare and got out of there as fast as I could.” She felt the grip on her arm loosen and yanked it free walking out of the wooded area. Though her spark froze when she saw who was on the other side of the river.  
“Jazz.” The Porsche looked at her then behind her, she knew he was looking at Thundercracker. “Jazz, it’s not what you think he…” she began.

“Is a poor excuse for a brother.” The saboteur said in a neutral voice.


	12. Chapter 12

Lightning paced her quarters, she was going to tell her father what happened all those years ago with Sunstreaker. _Maybe I should have called in Prowl…or Smokey as backup_ she thought with a little chuckle. She shook her head _no, dad wouldn’t be that bad…would he?_ A knock on the door got her attention and she became nervous, virtually frightened.  
“C-come in.”

“You wanted to speak to me?” Skyfire said as he walked in.

“Mm-hm.” The blue-grey femme replied suddenly finding that she couldn’t speak.

“Lightning, what’s wrong?” the jet asked worriedly as he walked over to his sparkling placing a hand on her shoulder.

She looked at him a moment before looking over at the floor. “I-I…have something to t-tell…uh…y-you.”

“What is it? And why are you so scared?” he asked worriedly.

The blue-grey learjet walked a little away from him still looking at the floor. “W-well back when you were miss-missing.” She began “S-Sunstreaker and I, we…uh…we kinda…g-got together.” Skyfire looked at her half confused, where was she going with this? Lightning sighed, “You have a grand-sparkling.”

“W-what?” the white jet asked both shocked and surprised.

She nodded, “h-he’s actually here, in this base.”

“You had a sparkling with Sunstreaker, the mech that nearly killed you!” Skyfire ranted.

Lightning turned back to her father. “He didn’t mean it! It was only because…”

“Just you wait until I get a hold of Prowl and Smokescreen.”

“They have nothing to do with this!” she argued back now annoyed.

“They were suppose to be looking after you, not letting you get sparked by the first mech you saw!” he fumed.

“They did look after me! And Sunstreaker wasn’t the first mech.” The femme instantly facepalmed. _Slaggit!_

“WHAT!”

“You know what, forget it. Had you been around I probably wouldn’t have met any mechs…ever!” heading for her door, but Skyfire grabbed her arm.

“Does Sunstreaker know about this?” he asked sternly.

“No, I never told him.” She half lied.

“Lightning, look at me.” He said quite seriously. After a few moments the femme looked at him an unreadable expression on her face. “You tell that mech now about his creation or I will. And you will not like the way I will do it.” He half threatened.

“Y-yes Skyfire.”

\----  
“I-I can’t do this.” Starlight said starting to stand when someone instantly grabbed her wrist, she looked over and saw Ironhide looking at her.

“Don’t let them get to you. If you do, then you’ve let Starscream win.” He told her.

“Ironhide’s right.” Bumblebee agreed.

“B-but the way they stare…” the learjet began.

“How long have you know Storm?” Bluestreak suddenly asked.

“Virtually all my life, why?” Starlight asked sitting back down.

“Was she always so…fierce?”

Starlight chuckled, “no, in fact she used to be like Lightning.”

“What happened to change her so?” Wheeljack asked amazed, as was everyone else at the table.

“The Decepticons happened.” She sighed sadly. “Look I appreciate everything you’re trying to do for me while…my teammates are…otherwise engaged, I really do but I don’t feel like sitting and getting glared at. I’m sorry, maybe tomorrow.” She explained before getting up.

“Do you promise to come out of your quarters if one of us comes by tomorrow?” Bumblebee asked.

The femme looked at him a moment before giving a small smile. “Yes, I promise Bumblebee.” She promised the mech before  walking out.

“It’s no good, no matter what we try they’re never going to be as happy as they once were.” Wheeljack stated.

“It doesn’t help that Storm’s still missing either.” Ironhide concluded.

“Then we’ll just have to convince everyone else. Make them see that they’re not connected to the cons.” Bluestreak said.

The three mechs looked at the grey Datsun.  
“That’s asking a lot, Blue.” Bumblebee said.

“Surely some of them _must_ have nice or happy memories of them before they found out. We just have to remind them.” The grey mech continued.

“You know, that might not be a bad idea.” Wheeljack said thinking aloud.

\----  
Skywarp once again sat upon a cliff, just listening to the ‘feeling’ that resided in him at the closeness of his sister. Despite all the adamant denials he had told Starscream, when he finally saw Starlight for who she really was he almost jumped for joy. She _was_ Solarflare, _his_ sister. Had he known back then what he knew now things would have been a lot different. For despite all his… cruelness he had a soft spot for Solarflare and only her. When he saw her so scared and afraid it took everything he had not to go over and comfort her, Starscream had naturally found the whole thing hilarious and had things been different, had she not been his twin then he would also find it funny. He knew he wouldn’t be able to hurt her, Lazer on the hand he had no problem shooting at especially after what she did to him. He sighed, then heard the familiar sound of jet engines and looked up to see Thundercracker transform and sit next to him.  
“I’ve been looking for you,” the blue seeker said.

“Really.” The black seeker said uninterested.

“You alright?”

“I think we both know how stupid that question is.” Skywarp said.

Thundercracker was about to say something when a voice said, “here you idiots are.” He looked over in annoyance; he so didn’t want to deal with _him_ at the moment. “What the slag do you want?” he asked rudely.

“To make sure those femmes are out of the way for good.”

Skywarp couldn’t help the growl that emanated from his vocaliser. No-one harmed his sister, after realising what he thought he looked down at the view below. _I’m so slagged_ he thought.


End file.
